Study: Romneycare Cost 18,000 Jobs

A new study released by Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute reveals that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s socialized medicine plan – which included an unconstitutional individual mandate – cost the Bay State more than 18,000 jobs.

The study also found that “Romneycare” drove up health insurance costs in Massachusetts by $4.3 billion – while forcing U.S. taxpayers to shell out billions worth of Medicaid waivers to pay for the program.

“While the federal government has helped Massachusetts pay for its health-care law, there is no higher entity for the federal government to go to except the taxpayers,” Bachman noted.

The Beacon Hill study is the latest proof that Romneycare has utterly failed to live up to its promises of expanded coverage and reduced costs.

“Romneycare expanded coverage simply by putting more people on the dole,” a recent Forbes column by Sally C. Pipes notes. “Since 2006, 440,000 people have been added to state-funded insurance rolls. Medicaid enrollment alone is up nearly 25 percent, and Massachusetts is struggling to cover the cost.”

Fraud has been rampant, physician wait times have increased and the program is expected to exceed its original cost estimates by more than $2 billion over the coming decade.

Perhaps most damaging to Romney’s presidential aspirations, though, Pipes’ column exposed a key weakness in both Romneycare and Obamacare – the rising cost of private insurance.

Romney claimed in 2006 that his legislation would reduce health care costs, but that clearly hasn’t happened.

Citing a 2010 study, Pipes’ report notes that health insurance premiums have risen dramatically in Massachusetts since Romneycare was implemented. In fact, the average employer-sponsored family health care plan in the Bay state now costs $14,000 – the highest figure in the nation.

We have consistently opposed this monstrosity ever since it first reared its sinister head. We hate its infringements on individual liberty, but the bottom line is that America simply cannot afford its exorbitant costs or the new burdens it would place on the private sector – concerns which are even more relevant now than ever in light of America’s debilitating debt and increasingly sluggish economy.